I would add sękacz to the list. As the wikipedia article notes, there is evidence that there were spit cakes in ancient Greece.
TheRoque 12 hours ago [-]
Never tried it, but apparently it's not that good. Like, super dry, and very basic taste.
jaynetics 10 hours ago [-]
I dunno how they make it in other countries, but I can confirm that a well-made German Baumkuchen, coated with chocolate to keep the dough from drying out, is simply delicious. It even got so popular in Japan that they have it in most supermarkets (baumukuhen / バウムクーヘン).
TheRealPomax 8 hours ago [-]
The story of how that even happened is all kinds of amazing in and of itself.
dmos62 8 hours ago [-]
Opposite experience. The versions I've tasted were not dry (unless left out for too long), had a sort of melt-in-your-mouth texture, was sweet, had a specific taste that's hard to name (eggnog?).
kergonath 8 hours ago [-]
They are not dry if they are made properly and eaten straight away. The stuff we can get in the stores is of variable quality (or at least variable storage conditions).
That said, it’s popular cuisine, from regions that were historically not that wealthy. It’s a bit rustic, but there is some beauty in its simplicity.
xandrius 12 hours ago [-]
Yeah, it looks like a fun gimmick but it's basically a butter biscuit with a bit of rum and liqueur, which does most of the heavy lifting there.
Oarch 10 hours ago [-]
Can confirm; looks great but I was disappointed while eating it.
femtozer 13 hours ago [-]
I never thought I'd see the traditional cake from the region I grew up in on the HN frontpage :)
poulpy123 8 hours ago [-]
Ironically I'm french but I was aware of the tredelnik and the baumkuchen but not this one
cantalopes 6 hours ago [-]
This cake is really funny to me because almost every central european country has a variety of this cake, having unclear roots going back somewhere to middle age germany and "around", and people in the comments always get super nationalistic and angry about this being cake from country X and not from a country of X
arnejenssen 12 hours ago [-]
The magic taste happens when the batter is exposed to air and heat through the gradual builds of layers?
4gotunameagain 11 hours ago [-]
The magic taste happens with the 2 litres of rum !
But there's not really a magic taste, it's just a fun tradition.
Giorgi 13 hours ago [-]
This looks like Baumkuchen, must be relative of sorts
TheRoque 12 hours ago [-]
Napoleon's soldier saw the spit cakes from eastern europe and brought it back to France apparently.
ginko 13 hours ago [-]
You find variations all over Europe
knodi123 6 hours ago [-]
baumkuchen with a lot more centrifugal force!
barryobarry 12 hours ago [-]
It's not a french cake, it's been brought to france
kergonath 7 hours ago [-]
It’s not a very good point. Everything was from somewhere else at some point. It resonated in some places and got integrated into local traditions, it’s all there is to it. Yes, there are some things that are spread throughout Europe. They can still be part of local customs.
lo_zamoyski 5 hours ago [-]
You're right that people borrow all the time. Cultural exchange is normal. What I charitably suspect the parent was alluding to was the French (though, of course, not exclusively French) tendency to saddle so much of what they've received with French roots. If it weren't for the revolution, we might learn that Jesus himself was a Frenchman!
> Several national variants of spit cakes: Spettekaka, Trdelník, Prügelkrapfen, Baumstriezel, Kürtőskalács, Šakotis, Baumkuchen, Kürtősfánk
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Spetteka...
That said, it’s popular cuisine, from regions that were historically not that wealthy. It’s a bit rustic, but there is some beauty in its simplicity.
But there's not really a magic taste, it's just a fun tradition.